You have three days until the AP Psychology exam. This is not the time to memorize the DSM-5 cover-to-cover — it's time to drill the highest-frequency concepts and lock in the FRQ response patterns the College Board asks every year.
This plan assumes ~4 focused hours per day. If you're running short, shorten practice sets, not topic coverage. Psychology rewards knowing depth on core concepts over breadth on obscure ones.
Day 1: Biological Bases + Cognition (4 hrs)
These two units account for nearly 40% of the exam and anchor almost every FRQ scenario.
What to review (90 min)
Neurotransmitters table (memorize cold):
- Dopamine: reward, motivation, movement
- Serotonin: mood, sleep, appetite
- GABA: inhibitory, anxiety reduction
- Glutamate: excitatory, learning, memory
- Acetylcholine: memory, muscle movement
- Norepinephrine: arousal, attention
- Endorphins: pain relief, pleasure
Brain structures (know location + function):
- Amygdala: emotion, fear processing
- Hippocampus: memory formation
- Cerebellum: motor coordination, balance
- Prefrontal cortex: executive function, impulse control
- Hypothalamus: hunger, thirst, temperature
- Thalamus: sensory relay (except smell)
Cognition high-yield:
- Memory types: sensory (iconic/echoic), short-term (7 ± 2 items, ~20 sec decay), long-term (semantic, episodic, procedural)
- Encoding (visual, acoustic, semantic), storage, retrieval
- Forgetting curves (Ebbinghaus), interference (proactive/retroactive)
- Language acquisition (Broca's/Wernicke's areas)
What to practice (2.5 hrs)
- 25 mixed MCQs on neurotransmitters + brain structures (highest single-topic yield).
- 1 FRQ scenario: given a patient symptom (e.g., "motor tremors, difficulty initiating movement"), identify the neurotransmitter deficit and explain.
- Memory encoding/retrieval drills: read 5 scenarios, label as proactive/retroactive interference, encoding type, memory system.
💡 Highest leverage: Neurotransmitter dysfunction appears in every AP Psychology exam. Pair each with a drug (dopamine agonists for Parkinson's, SSRIs for depression) or disorder to cement the connection.
⚠️ Common trap: "Dopamine = happiness" is wrong. Dopamine = motivation/reward-seeking. Depression involves serotonin dysregulation, not dopamine alone.
Day 2: Development + Learning (4 hrs)
These units test whether you can apply theories to real child or behavior scenarios — exactly what FRQs demand.
What to review (90 min)
Lifespan development theorists (know the stages + key critics):
- Piaget: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational (watch for conservation task errors)
- Erikson: 8 psychosocial stages (trust vs mistrust through ego integrity vs despair)
- Kohlberg: preconventional, conventional, postconventional (moral reasoning)
- Vygotsky: zone of proximal development, scaffolding
Learning paradigms (define each, know the vocabulary):
- Classical conditioning: UCS (unconditioned stimulus), UCR (unconditioned response), CS (conditioned stimulus), CR (conditioned response), extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, discrimination
- Operant conditioning: positive/negative reinforcement vs positive/negative punishment (NOT the same as classical)
- Observational learning: modeling, mirror neurons, Bandura's Bobo doll experiment
What to practice (2.5 hrs)
- 1 timed FRQ: read a vignette about a child solving a puzzle with adult help. Identify Vygotsky concepts (ZPD, scaffolding) and explain why it works.
- 20 MCQs on operant vs classical conditioning (these are mixed constantly; 80% of students confuse negative reinforcement with punishment).
- Define-and-apply drills: give the term (e.g., "conservation"), define it, apply to a scenario (e.g., "Zara pours juice from a tall glass to a short one; she thinks she has less juice").
🎯 FRQ pattern: Almost every FRQ on development asks you to name the theory AND apply it to a specific child scenario. Write both: "Vygotsky's zone of proximal development refers to... In this case, Maria is..."
⚠️ Negative reinforcement is NOT punishment. Negative reinforcement removes an aversive stimulus (e.g., stop nagging when chores are done). Punishment adds aversive stimulus (e.g., timeout). The confusion costs real points.
Day 3: Social + Personality + Disorders + Treatment + 1 FRQ (4 hrs)
What to review (90 min)
Social psychology high-yield:
- Asch conformity, Milgram obedience, Zimbardo Stanford prison
- Attribution errors: fundamental attribution error (overestimate personality, underestimate situation)
- In-group bias, prejudice, stereotype
Personality theories (know the criticisms):
- Freud: id/ego/superego (mostly outdated but still on the exam)
- Humanistic: Maslow, self-actualization, unconditional positive regard (Rogers)
- Trait theory: Big Five (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism)
- Social-cognitive: Bandura, reciprocal determinism
DSM-5 categories (brief definitions, not diagnosis criteria):
- Anxiety disorders: GAD, panic, phobias, PTSD
- Mood disorders: major depression, bipolar
- Schizophrenia spectrum: positive/negative symptoms
- Personality disorders: cluster A (odd), B (dramatic), C (anxious)
Treatments:
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT): identify irrational thoughts, replace with adaptive
- Psychodynamic: unconscious conflicts, free association (Freud-style)
- Biomedical: SSRIs, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines (match drug class to disorder)
- Humanistic: unconditional positive regard, person-centered
What to practice (2.5 hrs — full timed FRQ set)
- 1 timed FRQ (evidence-based): "Use psychological evidence to explain why conformity happens and how a therapist might reduce harmful conformity in a client." Cite Asch, attribution, and a therapy approach.
- 30 mixed MCQs (all units): focus on social psychology, disorders, and treatments (these are mixed heavily).
- Quick-review: neurotransmitters ↔ disorders (dopamine hypothesis for schizophrenia, serotonin for depression).
The night before
Skim our last-minute review checklist. Get 8 hours of sleep — memory consolidation is real, and cramming all-nighter destroys your ability to reason through FRQs.
Common point-leaks that cost real students real points
- Confusing negative reinforcement with punishment (happens constantly).
- Saying "Pavlov showed classical conditioning" without naming the UCS/UCR/CS/CR.
- Forgetting that Milgram's obedience was about situational pressures, not personality.
- Applying the wrong theory (e.g., Piaget for a teenager when Erikson is more relevant).
- Diagnosing (saying "This person has depression") instead of explaining symptoms.
- Writing "Freud" for every unconscious-mind question (he's one theorist, not all of psychology).
What this plan deliberately skips
You will not fully master all 16 DSM-5 disorders or all 50 studies in 3 days. Skim the disorder names, learn the "big ones" (depression, anxiety, schizophrenia), and accept you may lose 2-3 points on obscure questions. Spend saved time mastering the neurotransmitter-disorder links and conditioning vocabulary instead.
Ready to start?
Open the AP Psychology topic library → and start with Day 1 neurotransmitters. Do 3-5 practice MCQs per topic. Mix in scenarios: read a symptom, name the neurotransmitter or brain structure, explain the connection. Good luck — you've got this.
After the 3-day plan? Move to 7-day full review or FRQ practice guide.